Entertainment Briefs

Enjoy an island experience on the mainland at the Toledo Lighthouse Waterfront Festival July 11 and 12 at Maumee Bay State Park in Oregon.

Festivalgoers can enjoy boat rides around the lighthouse on a restored Cedar Point boat; nautical arts and crafts; a lighthouse photo contest; a sand castle contest; clam chowder contest; and lots of entertainment

Take a ride aboard a former Cedar Point Boat. See where Toledo draws its drinking water, West Sister Island, Little Cedar Point and more. Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. Saturday on a first-come first-served basis for the four trips offered every 2.5 hours on Saturday and three trips on Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. The tickets will be sold at the Toledo Society Lighthouse tent at the festival. The cost is $15 per person ($12 for members).

The popular annual festival is a celebration of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse, which is served and promoted by the nearly 400-member all-volunteer Toledo Lighthouse Society. Members devote their time and efforts to restoring the one-of-a-kind buff brick, rolled-steel roof structure, which boasts 70 windows that rise 64 feet out of the water.

“The view from the top is spectacular,” said Sandy Bihn, Preservation Society president, adding that the original lighthouse Fresnel lens is featured in the lobby of the lighthouse.

Access to the lighthouse is being worked on. In April 2009 the dock and ramp installed in 2008 disappeared. The ramp has just been located but the dock remains lost.

For more information about the festival or membership in the society, call 419-691-3788 or visit www.toledolighthouse.org.